Employee Malcolm Monroe, right, reaches for coin change for customers Naiya Baker, 9, left, and Patricia Cross as they get an order of "Double Up" sandwiches, featuring brisket and sausage, to go at Sausage Hauze.

Photo By LISA KRANTZ/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Employee Malcolm Monroe puts sausage in the smoker for an order of "Double Up" sandwiches featuring brisket and sausage at Sausage Hauze in San Antonio.

Photo By LISA KRANTZ/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

James-Barrington Rhodes, right, licks his fingers as he eats a "Double Down" sandwich, featuring brisket and sausage, with LeRoy Flemings, left, at Sausage Hauze in San Antonio on Wednesday.

Photo By LISA KRANTZ/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

"Sweet Jesus," moans James-Barrington Rhodes, right, as he eats a "Double Up" sandwich featuring brisket and sausage while he waits for a take out order with LeRoy Flemings, left, at Sausage Hauze in San Antonio on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011.

Photo By LISA KRANTZ/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

An onion from the sandwich eaten by James-Barrington Rhodes remains at his feet after he ate one Double Down" sandwich, featuring brisket and sausage, while waiting for the rest of his take out order at Sausage Hauze in San Antonio on Wednesday.

Photo By LISA KRANTZ/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

LeRoy Flemings, right, waves goodbye as he leave with LeRoy Flemings, left, after getting a take out order at Sausage Hauze in San Antonio.

Photo By LISA KRANTZ/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Owner Joaquinn "Joc" Arch, right, works at Sausage Hauze with Malcolm Monroe, left, in San Antonio.

Word of mouth brought home health-care worker Christina Vasquez to a small one-story building where wood smoke rolled from the open front door onto 734 North New Braunfels Avenue. She sat at one of three small tables with her back to the wall as she waited for two sausages, tucked between two large buns, slathered with “come here baby” sauce.

“Omigod, this is good,” she said, as she bit into the sandwich and licked her fingers. “And I'm really picky about my food.”

Her declaration brought a smile to Joaquinn Arch, owner of the Sausage Hauze, the new East Side eatery he opened several weeks ago. Arch hopes to revive the spot, located in the historic Grandview Food Center, as a community gathering place, just as it was years ago. An estimated 300 people came out to the grand opening he said included state Reps. Joaquín Castro and Ruth Jones McClendon, both D-San Antonio, and Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Adkisson.

In the early '80's, Arch was among the neighborhood children who ran to the store to buy cold cuts and sausage for their families while they eyed racks stocked with soda and candy. When he graduated from St. Gerard Catholic School in 1995, gangs and drugs swept through the area. The store closed, one of the casualties of the times.

He bought the building in 2009 with help from family and real estate profits. A year ago, he began the restoration project and secured a $10,000 matching storefront grant from San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside. The grant helped him surface a parking lot and improve the façade. In addition to the Sausage Hauze, he plans to open a business center/tax office and barbershop in the same building next year.

His cousin, Malcolm Monroe, one of Arch's three employees, serves as cook, creator of the house sauce and cashier in the building where his father once butchered meat. Monroe grew up five blocks away and used to run down the alleys to the Grandview to buy two cookies for a penny. He works the counter in the same area where the older folks used to congregate and socialize with the previous owner.

“If you didn't have something, he'd find it,” Monroe said of the previous owner.

Giving customers what they want is the top thing Arch said he works at. Vasquez said she'd be back for hot wings, a dish not yet on the menu. He said he would have it ready when she returned.

The menu includes sausage from across Texas, brisket, combos and a double-up sandwich, which includes chopped brisket and sausage. What isn't on the menu is Arch's down-home way of sitting in the shop and inviting passersby to sample his goods.

“It smells good, right?” Arch asked a trio of women as they stopped in the doorway.

“C'mon in, how y'all doing?” he said, as the women walked through a cloud of smoke and ordered take-out plates. “Welcome to the Sausage Hauze.”